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Huntsman's high-flying campaign

Jon Huntsman’s back-of-the-pack presidential campaign may be in the poorhouse – but that hasn’t stopped the candidate from running a penthouse-and-private jet operation.

A POLITICO examination of the former Utah governor’s travel expenses, filed in his federal campaign disclosure reports, show the candidate and his staff stayed in some of the most exclusive and expensive hotels in New York and Florida, racking up $67,000 in bills at Biltmore, Ritz Carlton and Loews Regency hotels since May.

Mitt Romney spent tens of thousands on lodging over the same period, but, with a few exceptions, his entourage stayed at more down-market chains: Marriott, Courtyard by Marriott, Fairfield Inn, Hyatt and Radisson.

Romney served on the board of the Marriott chain, but stepped down earlier this year in advance of his presidential run. His family has a close connection to chain founder Willard Marriott. There were also about $11,000 worth of travel reimbursements to Scott Romney, the candidate's brother.

Meanwhile, Huntsman, the former ambassador to China – and a millionaire businessman – spent $127,000 on private jets over the same period, much of it during his kick-off tour this spring. Since then, the campaign has been racking up the frequent flyer miles on commercial carriers and staying in lower-rate hotels.

Romney spent a comparable amount on jets, but the former Massachusetts governor has raised over $30 million, sits at or near the top in most polls, and has an increasingly large retinue of advisers.

Huntsman, by contrast, is stuck in the low single digits and has raised only $4.5 million, half of it in loans from the candidate himself.

Huntsman spokesman Tim Miller said the expenses were justified, and the hotels were in line with prevailing rates.

"As we said when filing our campaign's spending has been brought in-line, down about 50% since June,” he wrote POLITICO in an email late Friday. “A tiny percentage of the expenses you cite come from August or September."

Indeed most of the biggest payouts came before Aug. 1.

Between May and the end of September, Huntsman’s campaign spent $34,827.65 alone at the Loews Regency Hotel at 540 Park Ave, shelling out a whopping $12,945.27 on July 1st in a 4 ½-star establishment whose rooms range from about $450 to $800. Manhattan is notoriously expensive, but there are dozens of hotels with cheaper room rates, according to a quick scan of hotels.com.

Huntsman’s campaign charged $18,679.91 for repeated stays at the Ritz-Carlton in Orlando, FL – a five-star hotel that is among the most expensive in town with rates ranging from $340 for a small single to more than $1,000 for an executive suite.

When in Coral Gables, Team Huntsman eschewed the local Best Western, and piled into the four-star Biltmore, rooms starting at around $279, a magnificent 15-story tower modeled after the Giralda Tower in Seville, Spain, located on a lush 18-hole golf course. Their total tab so far in 2011 there is 15,378.42, according to filings.

The Rodeway Inn just outside of town would have cost him $56 a night – and $100 would have scored a handful of two-to-three-start establishments.

Both are wasteful and don't represent the poor or middle class American. (The majority) The elite are running this country into the ground... if you want that to continue, elect one of these two wasteful candidates.

I'm not a Huntsman supporter by any means but, frankly, when the last time Glenn Thrush or Maggie Haberman stayed in a Rodeway Inn or even a Best Western? Let's get REAL folks. This is a typical media dirt story - like maintaining that Perry's family is responsible for a fixed piece of land on property that he LEASES, not even owns! Shall we now resurrect and recirculate the Romney dog on the roof story? What irrelevant and meaningless dirt can we dig up about Herman Cain?

I think the point of this article is clear. For a campaign that is nearly broke and having trouble raising money for a rich candidate - they sure don't know how to spend donor dollars wisely. Why would you ever donate to this guy now? He clearly has no respect for your money, nor how to use it to achieve your goals.

Since Huntsman is doing so poorly in the polls, ( nearly last ) and getting nowhere, one wonders why he keeps it up. I for one wish he would go away and leave a little space for McWhorter and Gary Johnson.

I'm a Tea Party guy and I've donated to the Cain campaign. I can't imagine Herman Cain spending my small, hard-earned donations on maintaining a jet-set lifestyle like Huntsperson or Romney. I'd like to have what Huntsperson spends on manicures and haircuts and cosmetics in one year. I bet I could buy a used Porsche with that money. Herman Cain cuts his own hair. Years ago, he was refused service in a barber shop because the barber said he didn't cut black men's hair. Either the barber was a bigot or the barber didn't know how. In any case, Cain bought himself some clippers and he's cut his own hair ever since. Herman didn't get mad, he got even. I love that about the guy. Huntsperson has always reminded me of an ageing accounts executive sitting in a fern bar in lower Manhatten, sipping white wine over crushed ice, and trying to get up the nerve to ask a pretty boy for a dance. (Not that there's anything wrong with that...).Next fall I bet you'll see Huntsperson in the MSNBC or CBS booth criticizing the Republican nominee. That's the gig he really wants.

Well I'm sure this campaign staff is milking this losing proposition for all it can get. Then, when Huntsman is finished - and he will be finished - they will scurry off to join the real nominee's team in exchange for some deal made between Huntsman the and nominee.

I hope that this is truly in the past. But I will take Huntsman's solid record, ideas and leadership over someone like Cain that seems to have a very slight grasp on whatever he speaks and then pretends to "joke" about electrocuting illegals.

To those who comment that this is irrelevant, you are wrong. If this was about Huntsman and his travels around the world for his own pleasure, how he spends his own money is his business. But he is accepting donations from contributors, and if I were one of those donors, I would be upset.

I have stayed at the Ritz in Orlando, and the Biltmore, and they are very nice but I was there on my own dime and not accepting money from people to run for a political office.

I find this to be pretty disappointing as I am a Democrat, but would have considered Huntsman because of his experience, his views and the fact that he has served under both politcal parties, but this certainly taints my view.